The traditional Dracula is, of course, known for draining his victims of blood and life-force. Not a great guy, but still not one you necessarily expect to command you to “suck” his “cock,” especially from numerous horrific A.I. interpretations of the character. As the literal opening line in Radu Jude’s riotous vampiric polemic, the irascible director is giving you a heads-up on what to expect for the rest of the film’s nearly three-hour runtime. 

Working from a fusty script by writing duo Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who wrote a previous installment of the Friday the 13th series, Raimi goes deep in his bag of tricks  —  comic fish-eye perspectives; extreme close-ups; POV cameras hurtling through jungle terrain; extreme and ludicrous gore  —  to keep things going, but the indecisive screenplay simply won’t allow for the full Raimi experience. 

Rattles us with an authenticity not often found in films of its era.

The conceit of the series is that the films are based on the real-life case files of the Warrens, who documented their encounters via various tape and video recordings (clips of which were often shown during the closing credits to suitably chilling effect). In theory, this has always added a bit of heft to the otherwise pretty flimsy goings-on, though by now, so much of the Warrens’ "accounts" have been thoroughly debunked — including supposed paranormal doozies like the Amityville haunting — it’s pretty much impossible not to take all of these films without a boulder of salt.